The chief executive of Indonesian coalminer Bumi has called on Nat Rothschild and other shareholders to support a crucial break-up of the company a day after the banking scion failed in his attempt to stage a boardroom coup.

Trouble in Italy spread to the Square Mile today when a surprise profit warning from a Milanese oil and gas specialist sent shares in its global peers plummeting. The shocker for Saipem caused traders in London to dump Petrofac stock.

Pensioners faced the sharpest annual fall in retirement incomes in more than a decade last year, when the average payout for a 65-year-old man dropped by 11.5%. That was the largest annual decline since 1998, according to Moneyfacts. Research by Prudential found pensioners who plan to stop work this year will retire with an average of £3400 a year less than someone who retired in 2008.

Financier Nat Rothschild has escalated his long-running dispute with the board of Bumi, after claiming that the latest results from a key subsidiary of the Indonesian coal miner he co-founded lacked credibility.